The impact of Internet usage on gender role attitudes

ABSTRACT

This article uses the 2010, 2013 and 2015 waves of Chinese General Social Survey to investigate the effects of Internet usage on gender role attitudes. OLS and IV estimates show that Internet usage can effectively mitigate discriminatory attitudes against females; the effects are stronger among females and rural residents. The Internet can cultivate ideology and affect gender norms through its educational and informative functions.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender role attitudes
• internet usage
• China
• IV estimation

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• A13
• J16
• J71

Acknowledgments

This project is sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71703100) and Research Fund of Ministry of Education of China (17YJCZH267).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ These outcomes include, for example, regional economic development (Tabellini 2010), international trade (Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales 2004) and redistributive policy (Alesina and Glaeser 2004).

² Chinese feudal society is a patrilineal society, in which women had little autonomy regarding education, marriage, work, and fertility choices.

³ Data on sex ratio at birth comes from the 2010 Chinese Census conducted in November 2010. This census is conducted in every decade.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [71703100];Research Fund of Ministry of Education of China [17YJCZH267].